


His

by Gaeasun



Series: Good Soldiers Follow Orders (Clone Wars Angst Collection) [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, Brothers, CC-3636 | Wolffe Needs A Hug, Clone Troopers Speak Mando'a (Star Wars), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mild Blood, No Romance, No beta we die like good soldiers, Order 66, Pain, Parental Plo Koon, Why does writing angst make me happy, grinning and crying as I wrote this, more pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-26 12:22:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30105912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaeasun/pseuds/Gaeasun
Summary: Plo Koon has to make a choice when his men start firing on him,Wolffe doesn't get to.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & CC-3636 | Wolffe, Plo Koon & CC-3636 | Wolffe
Series: Good Soldiers Follow Orders (Clone Wars Angst Collection) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2220813
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	1. His

**Author's Note:**

> Felt like writing some angst. Enjoy (or just be sad)

The force trembled. 

It shuddered, and then it twisted, in pain and death and darkness.

Plo Koon didn’t know the full extent. But he still deeply inhaled, feeling the pressurized fighter’s air whistle through his mask.

So many. So many were dead, in an instant. And even aside of the death, there was a different pain. A cold, still one. Plo Koon shuddered to think what it meant.

_ Move _ the force whispered, and Plo Koon immediately jerked on his controls, sending his fighter into a barrel roll. Shots just barely streaked past him. The droids did not usually show such accuracy. 

He checked his sensors, and his hearts sank. There were no droids behind him. The only fighters behind him were of his own.

_ His _ clones. Not his because they were objects, not because they had been given to him to be used as living weapons, as bred soldiers. But his because he chose them. Because of the times he had saved their lives, and them his. Because of all the dark cold nights, when food ran low, when they were forced to fight a war none of them were truly capable of understanding. 

Because he loved them. And he knew that they did too, despite whatever monstrous catastrophe had stripped them of their love, their humanity. 

Plo knew he might escape. He was only under attack by a few fighters, while the whole fleet hadn’t engaged them yet. But he had no hyperdrive on this fighter. There would be no place he could run.

Certainly, it would end in bloodshed.

Plo Koon took another deep breath, and savored the way the air, though filtered, tho recycled, tho stale, felt in his body. 

He exhaled. 

_ My boys. I forgive you. _

Plo Koon released the controls.

  
  
  


In the lead command ship, Wolffe opened the channel that had contacted him earlier.

“It is done, my Lord.”

Wolffe ended the transmission, and watched the debris spiral out into the battle, soon to be lost forever. 

By his side, his hand holding the communicator trembled, but Wolffe didn’t notice. 

Suddenly, something came over Wolffe. It felt like warmth, like joy, like love. 

Like Plo Koon. 

_ Wolffe. I forgive you. _

Wolffe couldn’t respond, but he stiffened. He closed both eyes, the good one and bad one, and let himself relax into the presence.

Then all to quickly, it was gone. 

Wolffe threw out the crushed communicator, wiped away a little bit of wetness under his white eye, and continued his duties.

Because he was a good soldier.

And good soldiers soldiers follow orders. 

  
  
  



	2. What Do You Put in an Empty Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolffe is free and sad. Rex does his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad days are here again

A thud against the hull of the ship woke Rex up.

As he had been trained to to, he kept his eyes closed and body relaxed. He listened for any more noises, then cautiously opened his eyes. 

He saw nothing. But maybe that was because it was dark.

Rex slowly reached for one of his pistols. His hand slipped into a comfortable and familiar grip.

It was then that a late thought hit Rex. If he couldn’t hear anything, where was Wolffe?

He cursed himself for his slowness and hit the lights.

Wolffe was gone. 

The covers on the bed had been folded back neatly. Wolffe must have gotten up himself.

He almost put his gun back down, but he realized that he still needed to check outside for the noise. And make sure Wolffe was ok. Either one of those could require the use of his blaster. 

Stepping in front of the door, Rex sighed. This was going to be a conversation he wasn’t really looking forward to, wishing the responsibility didn’t have to fall to him. 

After all, there’s no easy way to tell a brother they’ve been brainwashed. 

It had been a lucky accident they’d even found him. Though Ahsoka has said something about it being the will of the Force. Whatever it was, Rex was just glad.

Ahsoka and he had gone on a quick data raid on a isolated data base, trying to find out more about the operations of the new Empire. 

Wolffe had been there, and thankfully managed to corner them both alone. It was too easy for Ahsoka suddenly change the circumstances, and they brought Wolffe with them.

There wasn’t time to get anyone else. Or, that’s what Rex told himself at night, when he saw his brothers with blank faces as they tried to kill him. 

They had found a small city in the the Outer Rim, with just enough medical equipment to be able to take out the chip from Wolffe’s head. Though his previous injury had complicated the surgery a little. Wolffe didn’t wake up right after the surgery. Just in case there was any remnant of the chip, Rex had asked Ahsoka to split up for a little bit, until he was sure his brother was safe. 

Wolffe had woken up earlier, whispered Rex’s name in recognition, and fell back asleep, though fitfully. After that, Rex felt they were safe enough for him to land on a dirty little moon, and caught some shut eye while he could.

But now Wolffe was awake. And Rex had some explaining to do. 

Rex finally opened the door. It was night on the planet, and though Rex heard, something, he couldn’t see. He took a few steps forward as he turned on a light-

and tripped as his foot fell in an unexpected hole. 

Rex landed hard, but he knew how to fall. He turned on his light and frowned.

By the looks of the broken edges and newly exposed dirt, this was a recent hole. New even. It was about twice as long as it was wide, and about a foot deep. The top of a large root snaked through the surface before plunging down into the dirt again.

Rex stood up and looked around with his light. 

There were more holes. None were less than ten feet close to each other. They were each about the same length and width, with varying depths. Rex walked around, looking at them. They all had some sort of object half buried in them, some rocks, some roots, some metal debris. Rex even saw a bone fragment and shuddered.

Rex turned back to the ship and looked around for a source of the noise he heard earlier. A fist sized, loose rock seemed to be the culprit. But rocks don’t tend to move by themselves (unless a Jedi was moving them. Rex had a small hope that General Skywalker was going to pop out with a wry smile. But Commander Tano seemed so sad when Rex asked her about him).

Judging from the placement of the rock against the angle of the ship, the rock probably came from… that way, Rex decided. 

Rex had to only walk a short way before he heard three things:

The sound of dirt hitting dirt.

The sound of a shovel scraping the ground.

And the sound of a vod breathing heavily. 

Rex took a few long steps forward and saw Wolfe, hunched over in the dirt, a few feet into a hole. As the light shone on him, he turned his head and held his hand over his good eye. His bad eye gleamed almost unnaturally.

“Wolffe. Wolffe are you ok? What are you doing, brother.”

Wolffe scraped out another lining of dirt and slung it back. His movements were a little sluggish, and Rex wonder how long he had been up for. 

“Rex, I’m the one with the bad eye. Can’t you see? I’m digging.”

Rex took another step forward, and Wolffe kept digging.

“What are you digging?”

“Again, take a look. It’s a hole.”

Rex sat down next to Wolffe and put a hand on his shoulder. “You know, Obi-Wan once told me no one digs a hole unless they want something else to be there. What do you want to be there, Wolffe?”

Under Rex’s hand, Wolffe trembled. “There’s,  _ huff _ , not going to be anything in this hole, brother.”

“Why not?”

Wolffe was shaking now, and stabbing the dirt with a greater effort. “There’s nothing to put in there.” 

The shovel hit something hard and Wolffe cursed. He clawed at the dirt and revealed a rock, buried in the ground, its full size hidden by the dirt. 

Through his light, Rex saw Wolffe’s bloody fingers scratch at the rock, trying to remove it. When it didn’t budge, Wolffe grabbed the shovel, shoved Rex’s hand off his shoulder, began to drag himself out of the hole. 

In a few efficient moves, Rex knocked the shovel away, pinned Wolffe’s arms to his sides in a hug from Wolffe’s back, and rolled them both back into the hole. 

“Let me go Rex,” Wolffe growled, and kicked at the dirt on either side of them. 

“Sorry ori’vod, we need to have a talk and you need a break.”

Wolffe struggled in Rex’s arms, but he was too tired and weak to escape. He finally relaxed into Rex. 

“Wolffe. You need to know it wasn’t your fault.”

Wolffe kicked the dirt wall once, bitterly. “Really. Are you sure?”

“You know I am. It was a brain chip. A chip that gave none of us,  _ none of us _ a choice.”

“Except you.”   
  
Rex scowled. “Even me. I tried to kill Commander Tano too.”   
  
“Kriff that,” Wolffe suddenly spat. “I know you, Vod’ika. If you really and completely wanted Commander Tano dead, she would be dead. You must have done something. No matter how little. And if you could-” Wolffe struggled again a little “-why couldn't I?”

Rex held Wolffe tighter, but it wasn’t to subdue him anymore. “Still wasn't your fault.” 

“Must have been something I coulda done.”

Rex kept holding Wolffe, until he began to shake again. 

“Why couldn’t I have saved him? Why wasn’t there anything I could do?”   
  


Rex gently turned Wolffe around until he saw the faintest gleam of moonlight reflecting in two lines down Wolffe’s face. He gently brought his ori’vod in a kedalbe as tears started streaming down Wolffe’s face. 

“After I did it, I felt him. I  _ felt _ him Rex.”

“And, he told me something. He told me he forgave me.” Wolffe began letting out small sobs, his forehead bumping against Rex’s.

The two brothers stayed together, in a no longer empty hole, until after the sun rose, in a new morning. 

  
  
  


  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're sad now! :O Sorry.
> 
> Kudos and comments please! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write shorts, so a lil comment/feedback should be appreciated <3


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